2000 productions

11–13 May 2000

Outside Edge

By Richard Harris

Set in a cricket Pavilion, Outside Edge deals with an eventful Saturday afternoon in the lives of five men and four women.

Roger is having trouble getting a team together for the afternoons fixture against the British Railways Maintenance Division Yeading East but this proves to be the least of anyones worries. Bob is having marriage trouble as he is still doing odd jobs for his ex-wife behind his current wife Ginnie's back. Kevin is trying to fight off his over affectionate wife Maggie while at the same time nurse his injured spinning finger and Alex's new girlfriend ends up shutting herself in the toilets having hysterics. Even Roger's seemingly perfect marriage to Miriam hits the skids when she discovers he was playing away from home in more ways than one on a trip to Dorking last year.

Just when it seems things can't get any worse for them, it starts to rain.

12–14 October 2000

Pack of Lies

By Hugh Whitemore

In 1961, Peter and Helen Kroger, two Americans living in a London suburb, were convicted of spying for the Russians and sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment.

From these true facts Hugh Whitmore has written a fictional account of the events leading up to their arrest and the effect it has on the totally unsuspecting Jackson household - Bob, Barbara and their daughter Julie.

The Jacksons live opposite the Krogers, believing them to be a convivial Canadian couple and their closest friends. Then a mysterious stranger arrives, announcing he is from MI5 and quietly coerces the Jacksons into allowing their house to be used as a surveillance post.

In the months that follow, the Jacksons’ decent, happy life is shattered as the truth about their friends is gradually revealed to them and, helpless in an alien world of deception and treachery, Barbara reaches breaking point with the agonising realisation that the Krogers have betrayed her and she, in turn, has betrayed the Krogers.

26–29 January 2000

Aladdin

By Norman Robbins

Aladdin lived in China with his poor old mother Widow Twankey. One day a rich old man called Abanazar comes to see Aladdin and tells him he is his long-lost uncle, he gives Aladdin a magic ring and asks him to do a favour in return. Abanazar tells Aladdin he has to go deep into a cave and find him an old lamp.

Abanazar tries to trick Aladdin by telling him to pass up the lamp, Aladdin sensing he is being tricked refuses to hand over the lamp. In a rage Abanazar seals the cave forever with a magic spell. Aladdin eventually escapes with the help of the Slave of the Ring, a genie trapped inside the magic ring that Abanazar has given him.

Through the lamp Aladdin and his mother Widow Twankey became very rich, but Aladdin’s life was not complete – Aladdin meets the Emperor’s daughter, a beautiful Princess, and falls madly in love with her. With the help of the genie of the lamp, the emperor agrees to the marriage and Aladdin and his new princess bride live happily for a while.

One day Abanazar disguised as a trader comes to the home of the Princess and Aladdin and asks the Princess for any old lamps, she gives the old man Aladdin’s lamp because she did not realise it was magical. Once he has the lamp, Abanazar immediately instructs the genie to take the palace far away ‘to the edge of the middle of nowhere’. How will they ever get back? Will Aladdin ever see the Princess again?